Circle
by Tizumisu
Summary: "Hearts break, Ringabel, but circles go on for infinity." ( True Ending Spoilers - Implied death )


"Didn't think you'd be one for staying up."

Tiz let out an audible breath of surprise before lifting his head to look behind him, not leaving his spot on the soft grass. Brown hues met vaguely amused eyes, and he sighed, sounding unimpressed. "Oh." The brunet turned his head to stare back down at the tombstone at his feet, murmuring, "It's just you."

Ringabel quirked a brow at the supposed greeting as he took a seat beside him, noticing that Tiz's earlier jubilant demeanor was nonexistent. "Can't remember my name?" he inquiries teasingly, scooting a little closer to see what Tiz was so engulfed in inspecting. "Neither can I." Even he had to crack an idiotic grin at his own joke, considering he was the joke. He received no response from his partner, which idly confused him. "Ahem, all joking aside—is there something on your mind?"

The younger of the two lifted his shoulders in response to Ringabel's concern. "It's something personal I guess." He slowly read the name encrypted forever into the polished stone, chiseled not only into the grave, but into his mind. Til Arrior. Ringabel wasn't stupid—he probably knew that the name was only a fraction to Tiz's past. Attempting to fill the silence with idle conversation, Tiz looked at Ringabel with no sign of any gleeful emotion. "Why are you up?"

In return, the older male flashed a quick grin before his eyes read the name engraved unto the stone, noticing the deceased person shared their surname with Tiz. Afraid to discuss the topic, he continued the chatter. "Can't sleep. Not much of a reason to be up at this hour, but I'm probably too tired to even close my eyes."

"Ringabel?"

"Hm...?"

"You're odd." A chime of laughter bubbled from Tiz, vanquishing the silence that encased them, and Ringabel didn't seem to catch the joke. He tilted his head in question, his eyes trying to read the other, to no avail.

"I fail to see what is so amusing—" Ringabel cuts in, a confused yet bright smile on his face, dipping his head to look at Tiz expectantly.

"Too tired to even close your eyes? I can relate to that easily," Tiz remarked, tilting his head to look up at the sky as he applied his weight to his hands, which supported him. He hummed for a moment, and Ringabel imitated his action, staring up at the sky as well. "Hey, Ringabel," Tiz said, his smile growing smaller. "Care to help me sleep?"

In response, the older male twitched. "Help you sleep?" He had only met Tiz that morning, and now he was doing quite a questionable favor for him. "And just how am I supposed to carry that out?" The way he worded his sentence meant he would, but the idea was so foreign, it seemed like child's play.

"Mm, I dunno." Tiz then pushed himself up and dusted the dirt off of his clothing, then extended a gloved hand toward Ringabel. The older man grinned and took Tiz's hand, and, likewise, hefted himself from the grass. The duo stood silently in thought, the quiet barrier settling between them before Tiz's eyes widened and he said, "Ah, I know."

"What do you have in mind?"

"You'll see." Bending over, Tiz plucked a sharp-looking rock from nearby, leaving Ringabel to think why they hadn't noticed it before. Gesturing to the nearby wall that connexted the graveyard to the rest of Caldisla, Tiz motioned for Ringabel to follow him, a content, relaxed expression lacing itself onto his features.

The young man scraped the wall with the chipped rock, which produced a hideous gritty sound, but tried his best to ignore it as Ringabel winced and covered his ears. He drew the letter "T" in scraggy writing in the middle, with "&" slanted messily beside it. "What's that?" Ringabel asked, unsure of how this was supposed to do with him and helping Tiz sleep.

The other didn't respond, but he handed the stone to Ringabel. "Draw an 'R' right there, for your name," he instructed, tracing his index finger along the area where Ringabel was told to write. Ringabel shrugged, and began to outline a neat, cursive R, and grimaced as the chalky sound of stone against stone was heard. Tiz noticed Ringabel's reaction and laughed as they both stepped back to admire their handiwork.

"Wait!" Tiz yelped, taking the worn rock from Ringabel's hands, "I forgot the most important part!" He was at work on the wall again, but it took him less time to fix whatever he was concerned about.

"You only drew a circle around the letters," Ringabel pointed out as Tiz backed away to inspect the graffiti.

"I know that. But do you know it's significance?"

"No...?"

Tiz smiled and closed his eyes, rocking back and forth lightly on his heels. "I used to do this with a certain someone back home. Whenever either of us had horrid dreams, we do this to remind us that we will always look out for each other—in a caring way, I mean," he adds, noticing the odd, questioning glance that Ringabel shot his way. "But it can also be in a loving way if you're into that kind of stuff."

"Tiz, I know what you're implying." The brunet didn't respond. "But what's that circle around our initials for? Shouldn't it be heart or something of the sort?" Ringabel asked again, and Tiz finally looked over to him.

"You ask too many questions. The circle is a replacement for a heart. Hearts break, Ringabel, but circles go on for infinity."

"In that case..." Ringabel picked the rock from Tiz's hand and began sketching on the wall once more, this time, adding "foreve" in nice handwriting at the end.

"You... forgot the 'r' if you meant to write 'forever'," the brunet said, gesturing to the word.

A smile overcame his features as Ringabel met eye contact with him once more. "Tiz, there's no 'r' because that's the end of forever. You and I will always look out for each other forever, and the end of forever will never come."

"You're incredibly saucy."

* * *

"W—wait up!" Ringabel called after the two females who were laughing and running as quickly as they could. His chest pounded with exhaustion as he hastily stumbled to catch up with them.

"Ringabel, you slowpoke, hurry! We need to find Tiz and then the celebration will start!" Edea called back, now holding a smiling Egil in her arms as she raced down the steep incline on Caldisla street, her feet pounding against the pavement. Agnès laughed along, her hair flying behind her as she raced alongside Edea.

"Slow—? Edea, I just woke up!" He let out a breath of air to relieve the burning feeling in his chest. A film of sweat accumulated at the brim of his forehead, and he lazily fanned his face as he dashed around the corner. Surprisingly, sleep still dowsed his senses, and he only heard the echoing giggles of the two females before he stopped moving altogether, standing in the bright midday sun.

Where was Tiz anyway? Egil reported that he hadn't seen him for the rest of the day, since morning. Although Ringabel shouldn't have been as concerned as he was, he was frankly worries for him.

A small sigh left his lips as he continued down the block, his heartbeat slowing to its casual pace. How long has it been since he had finally settled down back in Caldisla? He remembers so many things that struck the trigger for his journey—meeting Agnès and Tiz, the pages of D's journal, and those many nights that Tiz would rather spend outside in the company of the moonlight rather than his bed.

Truthfully, he recalled the tiny, ludicrous moment when he helped Tiz sleep for the first time. "Mm, I wonder if it's still there," he pondered, turning back to the path where the graveyard led.

The numerous tombstones that lay scattered amongst the ground still tickled his nerve as he strolled around, trying to picture exactly where he and Tiz made their silly promise (which he intended to keep). Ringabel quirked his head when he noticed the grass at his feet began fading into a hideous hue of brown.

He started walking again, following the dirt path that fed into the deepest part of the area. Ringabel kept close to the wall, sliding his fingers over its surface. A bullet of nostalgia embedded itself in his chest as he recognized the area. Sunshine just barely streaking through the overlay of leaves, the growing moss that crept alongside the bricks of the wall...

Humming happily, he brushed a few leaves away from a spot and he felt his eyes widen when he noticed a chalky white mark that seemed to be ghosting into the wall. Erosion and nature had plans for it, but the promise it held seemed to be keeping the marks together. Ringabel held the leaves and scanned the wall, tracing the faded markings with an idle finger. T & R, Tiz and Ringabel. A circle that never ends. Forever, and ever, not until the end.

He grinned in satisfaction, spinning around to leave before something caught his eye, that was left on the wall. Messy handwriting that spelled, "I'm sorry" was underneath all the moss. A wave of panic washed over Ringabel as he lifted his hand from the wall and turned to depart, but once again, he noticed yet again, something he never wanted to see.

And right there, in the middle of a circle of dead grass, right next to the grave of Til Arrior, was the unmoving body of the only survivor of Norende, the one Ringabel promised to care for, and the one who promised to look out for him.

The lifeless body of Tiz Arrior.

* * *

**A/N: **im so sorry i havent posted anything tbh. its the beginning, then jumps to endgame? this is so short and written weirdly— i'll edit it later, but i dont want this account to stay dead forever UuU


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